We boarded a mini bus and headed back out of San Pedro de Atacama to the border of Chile and Bolivia. The border crossing sits at 4400m up on the dry desert plains, and underneath the perfectly shaped Lincancabur Volcano. It is here that we meet our guide, and his 4x4. After reading so many horror stories about both the 4x4s and the guides, I quickly checked out the vehicle. 4 wheels, yep that will do, and off we went in our luxurious Lexus, while the others clambered into their shity Toyotas... There were 6 of us in our group plus the driver, lucky for us there's a Chilean born girl that's been living in Miami most of her life, designated translator!
The first day we travelled almost in convoy through an amazing part of the world, with Volcanoes either side, and red dusty desert inbetween. We stopped at different spots including, Laguna Verde (Green Lake), Laguna Blanco (White Lake), another Laguna with hot springs, Sol de Mañana a geyser site which at almost 5000m was both freezing and lacking vital oxygen, and Laguna Colorado. Laguna Colorado was stunning! It's rich red colour due to algae attracts thousands of flamingoes, and along the shore were herds of llamas with bows in their hair (to celebrate llamas birthday) chewing the grass and posing for photos.
The night was spent out at a remote hostel in the middle of the desert at 4400m. It was pretty basic, beds, no showers, but was comfortable we were expecting worse. Food was alright and they even gave us a bottle of wine.
The following day we continues onwards towards Uyuni. More lagunas, more snow capped volcanoes, and more red dusty plains. We stopped at two spectacular rocky outcrops, before heading the the train museum, where trains go to die on the out skirts of Uyuni.
The Japanese guys that we were travelling with had been talking about heading out to the nearby Salar de Uyuni at night which is the worlds largest salt flat, 10000 square kilometres (Sydney is 1580 square kilometres), and contains 50-70% of the worlds lithium reserves [1]. They organised another 4x4 guy to take us out. During the wet season parts of the salt flat are covered by a few centimetres of water. By heading out into the middle of the salt flat at night, with a clear sky, you can get an almost perfect 360 degree reflection of the stars which is suppose to feel like you are floating in space. The night wasn't perfect for this, pretty full moon and cloudy, but it was one of the highlights of our trip! We were driven out first to the edge of the salt flats, before driving out to the centre. Near the edge was the deepest section of the lake, which apparently moves around depending on the wind. Driving out onto the lake was a weird experience, not sure whether we were going to sink, the salt flats actually turned out be rather hard, not boggy at all. Out in the middle where it was drier, we pulled out some chairs, cracked a bottle of wine and sat with no other cars or people around and watched an amazing lightning storm with bolts striking the otherside of the lake. Amazing!
The last morning of the tour we headed back out to the salt flats nice and early to watch the sunrise. This again was amazing, but this time slightly ruined by the hordes of other loud and annoying 4x4 tour groups.
Impressive photos as usual Prong. Love to look of orienteering in those rock outcrops!
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